Hidan no Aria:Volume11 Chapter2

2nd Ammo - Sports Festival -La Lissa-

Kaname had experienced two failures recently. Arcanum Duo, and the Lumberjack. It seemed that these experiences had 'cured' her, so to speak. She realised that she was worthless as a weapon, and losing in the duel broke her self-confidence. She seemed to living a normal middle-school life. The middle-school she's going to is far from normal, though. I started to see less and less of the scientific swords she was so proud of. Well, that's a good thing. Aria, who starts firing over who gets to use the remote, or Riko, who sets up landmines for fun, were the ones in the wrong. Kaname should live like a normal person. That was my conviction. She was at an age where she could still turn her life around.

I also felt like Kaname's attitude towards me had changed dramatically. It sort of seemed like she had started keeping a little bit of distance from me, appropriate to the brother-sister relationship she insisted we were in. She stopped clinging to me the way Riko did at least, which was a huge relief. But still, she was a total kid, and very attached to me. From time to time I would catch her doing some incomprehensible things, like staring at me from hiding. That was the kind of thing that I'd see in Jeanne's shoujo manga, plotlines like: "I've fallen in love, but my crush is my brother so I can't express it." There were a lot of things like this that made it hard for me to stay home, but it was better than when she used to threaten to stab me thirty times because I was hanging out with other girls. I supposed that I could bear it.

...I was careless.

When Kaname wasn't around, I decided to make reverse teru teru bouzu (normal ones, except heads pointing down,) to pray for rain. While I was busy with this, I received a strange call.

"Greetings, master."

"I told you stop calling me that." That was how my conversation with Fuuma started.

"Your little sister has been getting a lot of attention from the other freshmen girls." She reported to me.

"That's a good thing. That's what normal girls are supposed to do." She always was popular, unlike me. Kaname, the wolf in sheep's clothing.

"And recently, there is a group of girls that she is very close to."

"And what's wrong with that? Who are they?" I had lost interest in the stupid topic, so I reached out to grab my magic marker so I could continue drawing faces onto my reverse teru teru bouzu.

"Mamiya Akari." I froze.

"...Aria's amica?"

"Indeed." I had a bad feeling about this. I had investigated Mamiya, and found that she was a sort of rising star among the freshmen. The details were classified, which spoke of the level of operations she had taken part in. Mamiya had been E-rank before becoming Aria's amica, despite being rejected by another S-rank. 'There's no way that I'd be connected with any E-rank Butei, let alone you.' She had pressed on despite such shocking words. I asked Fuuma what Kaname was doing hanging around with Mamiya.

"The details are unclear. However, they seem to be colluding to prevent you from approaching Kanzaki-senpai."

Preventing me from approaching Aria? How considerate of them.

If we never saw each other, I wouldn't have to be chased around by her M1911s. Jeez, it's like I'm dragged into a bullfight when I'm with her. If you just imagine her hair clips as horns, then...yeah, seems pretty accurate to me.

"Keep an eye on them just in case. Report anything out of the ordinary to me."

"As you wish." I shook my head, sinking back into the sofa. Maybe I was leaving too much of this freshmen business in Fuuma's hands, but...ah, fuck it. I'm busy...well, not really, but it's about time I learned to delegate.

Not like I can split my attention to so many things.

I already had a massive task on my hands. Tomorrow, La Lissathe sports festival would be held at Butei High. It would be a day straight from hell.

Please...let it rain tomorrow.

Finishing up my reverse teru teru bouzus, I hung them on the curtain rail.

It was a beautiful sunday morning, not a cloud in the sky. The entire Butei High student body was assembled at the first school grounds. We were gathered for the annual sports festival. There were no practices for this events, seeing as the student population were mostly busy with investigations/operations. A rehearsal was held at 5AM in the morning, as we were herded together at gunpoint by the teachers. And well, this is it. The real thing. Damn, I'm sleepy. I'm going to fall asleep standing up.

"We, the participants, in accordance with the Butei Charter, swear to compete to the end!"

The preppy freshman, Takachiho Urara took the participant's oath. She probably didn't mean a word of it. The student body split themselves into the red team and white team, preparing for the competitions. None of us were carrying anything. Not knives, not grenades, not pistols, sniper rifles, or machine guns. We had all disarmed. This was absolutely an impossible sight to find in Butei High. The school rules did say: "It is your duty to carry arms, whether guns or blades."

The tamaire competition was about to start. Once, when Ranbyou had just been rejected at a marriage interview, we played a slightly different version. Students would pair up, and shoot into the net. The first person in the pair to make it into the net was free to shoot their opponent. Thankfully, we weren't playing that versionWe were just playing the standard version, throwing balls into a net that was three metres high. Why would we play such a peaceful game? Well...

"Wow~, what healthy and strong looking students these are."

"Ah, the weather's amazing. This is a great opportunity to work up a healthy sweat." The Tokyo Education Committee's vice-chairman and head instructor were here to observe...or rather, monitor us. That was probably because of the last sports festival, where all the events were absolute torture, like a barefoot hoplitodromos. It was more like a fight festival than a sports festival. We had a record number of injuries. Our student body, being largely insane, had an amazing time, but the governor of Tokyo somehow heard rumours of what went down, and he went ballistic. La Lissa was now monitored closely. The Masters had said that Butei High was at risk of being shut down if the event went badly.

"You will be playing the part of happy and innocent high school students during the 'first phase' of the sports festival. Anybody who discharges a weapon will receive the highest punishment." That was their instruction. The 'highest punishment' was pretty much a torture session, so we set our minds on tamaire, fake smiles plastered to our faces.

"Hahaha! You'll never get them in!" At the very least, Hiraga-san, from the Amdo division, was smiling innocently, making us all feel better. I'm glad that she was on my team, she seemed to be having fun. She was the one to go to when requesting weapon modifications, but seeing how clumsy her tiny hands were now, it made me hesitate about going to her again. By the way, we were free to wear whatever sports attire we wanted. Hiraga-san was wearing shorts, and she looked like a kindergartner free to wander around at recess. This competition totally suited her.

"...Hah!" Jeanne threw the ball, her form as graceful and perfect as ever. Her silver hair shone in the sunlight. She was really pretty, so even her fake smile was on the level of a Hollywood actress' smile. That said, she was wearing a pair of anachronistic and scandalous bloomers. They looked almost like panties. All in all, she looked dumb...but very tempting.

The seniors were also playing tamaire with us. They were a little bit frightening. 3rd year Butei often take clients from the government. Often their missions are very long, and they are sent overseas on 'exchange programs' to conduct operations abroad. As such, I've hardly ever met with any of them, but...

They all have such overpowering presences...

All of them have one or two things about them, if not three, that stand out. Seems like they'd be pretty difficult to get along with. They were way better than the freshmen or sophmores at pretending to be normal, but there's just a different air about them. Maybe they can hide it from normal people, but another Butei would be able to tell immediately. In any case, seniors wouldn't show their unbridled strength to their juniors. They wouldn't just randomly show each other their powers as well. They were used to hiding their claws. As the number of requests that involve combat increase, Butei often butt heads as business competitors. They hide their techniques, killing moves, and abilities from even their closest friends. As a result, they were even more scary than the yakuza even if they looked like normal high school students. You could say it was because they were starting to exude the aura of a professional.

If you survive through Butei High, you're a slave as a freshman, a demon as a sophomore, and Satan himself as a senior, huh. It makes sense. Satan doesn't meddle in things like lesser demons do, after all.

Ah, didn't think I would sweat so much just from playing tamaire. Maybe it doesn't count. It's more of a cold sweat from the chills running down my spine.

After the tamaire competition, the sports festival program was thrown out the window. Several 'individual competitions' were being held, spread out across the school grounds. This was because there were a lack of teachers to oversee the students, as a large amount of them were busy entertaining the VIPs from the Education Committee. I couldn't be bothered to enter one of the individual competitions, so I decided to be one of the scorekeepers. When I went to the Masters' tent to get scoresheets, I saw Ranbyou and Tsuduri's...'other' side. Instead of their normal laughter 'Gyahaha,' they were like 'Hohoho,' serving tea and jelly to the committee members. It was absolutely terrifying. They were just normal, pretty teachers. The difference was like night and day. These were the two who had somehow managed to procure a barrel of alcohol, before getting drunk and going ballistic. They managed to wreck a section of the island's artifical quay from the inside on their path of meaningless destruction, causing the entire island to lean to the south 0.08 degrees. I should totally rat them out...

After the incident, they filled up some ballast tanks to restore the island's original gradient, but they would definitely be on the chopping block if word got out. Although if I was the one to spill the beans, I would actually be decapitated. The two-metre zanbato that Ranbyou always carries around would be well-suited to the task.

Regardless of your strengths or weaknesses, you had to partake in the individual competitions as appointed by the Masters. As a result, you had no idea who would take part in which competition during the latter part of the first phase. I started biking towards the obstacle course competition.

"Ow! Owww!" Shirayuki was there, also in old-fashioned bloomers. I saw her trip over the high jump bar and hit her head on the vaulting horse. She hadn't even reached the halfway point even though the other competitors had already reached the end. That was probably because she kept getting stuck on every obstacle. Shirayuki was just about crying at this point.

"Go, Shirayuki-san!" "You're doing great! Yeah, that's the spot!" "Higher, jump higher!" The boys were cheering her on, though. I wonder why? It didn't feel like they were making fun of her, they seemed to be genuinely supporting her.

"A-Ahn, um...my leg's getting stuck...huh?..." Shirayuki was attempting the net crawl (literally crawling under a net,) and of course, she was just getting more and more tangled. I noticed that she was wearing the volleyball team's uniform. That made sense, since she was the captain.

Is our volleyball team really fit to compete...?

In my eyes, this was one of the seven mysteries of Butei High.

I continued on to the tennis courts.

"Senpai! Use my towel!" "No, use mine!" "Mine!" "You can use me, senpai!" I discovered a mosh pit there, centred around Jeanne.

"T-Tohyama! Help me!" Huh. That's a change from her normal line, 'Follow me!' Jeanne's hand stretched from within the press of bodies, reaching out to me, but...I'm sorry. I can't save you. What can I do to that circle of mini-miniskirt wearing girls? That's tennis-wear for you. I've hysteria savant syndromea heriditary disease. Solve your own problems.

"My my, popular aren't we? I guess it'd be better if the genders were reversed." Being the diligent worker that I am, I copied down the scores from the board on the fence. Ooh, Jeanne got first. Takachiho Urara from the Assault Division came in second, and Naruse from the Civetta Research division was in third. Hearing dull thuds behind me, I turned around to see a match of doubles badminton on the adjacent court. Reki was playing on the near side of the court, without her headphones. She was wearing a polo and skirt, with tights underneath. She had definitely borrowed them from someone.

"..." Whenever the shuttlecock flew by her, she would swing her racket like a broken pitching machine. Vertically. Reki's team was completely butchered. Her partner, a member of the badminton club, sank to the floor and started crying. There there, it's not your fault. Not even the world champion could fight a proper match if he was paired with Ms. Buddha.

"Hey Reki, I get that this was assigned to you by the Masters, but you should put some more effort in."

"..." I scolded Reki as I took down their scores, but she didn't reply. She was sitting with her knees tucked to her chest, despite wearing a skirt. Completely still, like a real statue of Buddha.

"...?" She seemed a little off. Her eyes were distant, like she was viewing this idiotic event as a sort of simulation. But well, Reki's always off. I'll just leave her to it.

I watched, dumbfounded, as the Mutou brother and sister combination pushed/drove their hearts out in the pushcar competition. All the girls were driving, and the boys were pushing. I didn't know who the hell came up with this competition, but the Mutous' attitude was: 'If it has wheels, Logi's pride is at stake.' I had met up with Kaname, who was like me, taking down scores. She was wearing tights. The competition was being held in the park, with various turns set up in a clearing.

"..Mmmph!" I looked up to the sky at the anime voice I had grown used to hearing. Aria had gotten some serious air on her inline skates. She was wearing normal gym attire with short shorts, and kid-sized protectors on her knees and elbows. Her helmet had perfect little holes for her twintails. Landing on a skate ramp, she jumped again. This time, she stretched out horizontally, spinning like a screw. That's a corkscrew. Applause and cheers flew from the spectators as her twintails span around her body like a tornado.

That was amazing...

She jumped again on the next slope, grabbing the tip of her skates and doing a somersault while spinning her body around. A flatspin 540! She was just pulling off insane trick after insane trick. She even had enough poise to wink at her female juniors as she was executing these maneuvers.

Yeah...she's the most athletic of all the Butei that I know.

I felt even more strongly about that after seeing Reki and Shirayuki's condition. And as always, I felt really weird about this, but...I didn't know any other way to describe it, so I'd just have to say it: she was cute. And she was cute in spades. There was just something about her that made me think that; ever since the day I met her it's been like this. She was born a noble, and she's great with languages too...why did God give Aria so much? I wasn't given anything useful. Just a dangerous condition.

But well...I guess she has a lot of shortcomings too, like being unable to swim, and being short. Both in temper and stature.

She had a terrible habit of forgetting stuff when she's having a lot of fun too. For example, she had forgotten all about Takoyaki in the autumn, despite having had it for the first time during a summer festival. I had to tell her about it all over again. Reminiscing about the past, I gazed at Aria.

"Ouch!" Kaname grabbed my cheek.

"What're you staring at?"

"I'm not staring at anything. Why're you angry? Your face looks like a chipmunk with its mouth full."

"Who says I'm angry?" Kaname looked away, scratching the scores from the BMX freestyle competition onto her scoresheet. She was using so much force that the lead broke.

"Oh, Kinji. Are you guys both skipping your sports?" Aria had finally noticed me. Still wearing her skates, she glided over.

"Who cares about the first phase...it makes more sense to skip these shenanigans."

"Even if it's an act, it's a good warmup for the second phase."

"Shhhh. Don't just talk about the second phase. The Masters will beat us silly if anyone from the Education Committee hears us." I looked around, making sure no demon teachers were nearby.

'Well, then...h-how was it?" Aria glanced at me, drinking an energy drink out of her plastic bottle with a straw.

"How was what?"

"...You were looking at me with a stupid expression on your face."

"Don't call my face stupid. You noticed that?"

"How could I not? You were just staring at me. Probably thinking dirty thoughts too."

"I-I wasn't staring...well, I was looking, but..." I was at a loss for words. I didn't know how she interpreted what I said, but Aria had started blushing. She didn't seem mad though. Her expression was pretty relaxed. She was more like...half embarrassed, half happy. It was likely something like that, though I wasn't completely sure. This was only based on my previous observation.

I get that she'd be embarrassed if I was staring at her, but...why's she happy?

I frowned, and Kaname did too. She was frowning because she knew understood what Aria's expression meant though. And she wasn't happy about it. I pointed to Aria's face, about to ask Kaname what exactly was going on.

"...What're you guys going to do now? You're done with scoretaking, right?" Aria asked.

"Mm? No, we're not done yet. There's still one more event here."

"Ah. Which one?" Eh? She seemed displeased.

"Buildering. It's like bouldering, except we're climbing buildings, not rocks. The Snipe building is the highest, so we're going to the roof to get the scores from those that made it to the rooftop."

"T-The rooftop...!?"

Oh, fuuuuck! Aria had frozen, her camellia irises wide with shock. I clamped my mouth shut. Nowadays, you couldn't mention the 'roof' around Aria. But I said it twice.

"R-R-Roof...rooftop...!"

"I-I'm sorry, Aria. Forget what I said. That was totally my fault."

"Roof. Roof. Ro...of. Roof...top..." ...Oh God...

At least she's freezing up! There's always a silver lining..."

Upon hearing the word, Aria could take on one of several behaviours. This was one of the safest ones. It was like hitting the jackpot, she would just completely lose all function. Back when I still didn't understand the weight behind the taboo, I said this: 'Why do you blow your top when you hear rooftop? What's wrong with rooftops? I mean, rooftop's are just so innocuous...they're just rooftops." She started crying, then screaming at me in English, and then drew her guns and started going crazy and running around the room shooting them everywhere before diving into Tokyo Bay from the balcony. She totally stole my move...That was the most dangerous behaviour of all, her 'berserk mode'. She was weird to begin with, but I thought she had finally gone off the deep end, She was floundering, about to drown, so I fished her out from the sea with a fishing rod. 'I don't know why I did that, so it doesn't count!' the violent mermaid said, punching me in the face even as I was trying to pull her out. I only found about about it then.

It seemed that when Aria remembered kissing me on the rooftop of the SSR building, she would go into hysterics. Despite that, even I didn't know why she kissed me. I had no idea how to heal the wound on her soul, if it even existed in the first place. It was a serious pain that Aria would go on a rampage despite it being something that she did, but for now I just avoided using the word altogether.

"Are you okay, Aria?" I shook her gently.

"I-I'm ok_ray..." The shock to her nervous system had left her malfunctioning. Her face was totally red.

"..."

"..." What can the two of us do about this? We looked at each other with troubled expressions.

Beep! Aria's amica, Mamiya, ran over on her little legs, blowing a whistle that she'd probably been using for the competitions. What was it? Her short twin-tails had bristled up, and she was swinging her fists around. She was clearly angry.

"Tohyama-senpai! Get away from Aria-senpai! Kaname-chan, give me a hand!"

"Yeah! You've crossed the line, Kinji!" Mamiya grabbed onto Aria, who was still wearing skates, and pulled here away like a wheelbarrow. On the other hand, Kaname had grabbed onto my belt and was dragging me to the Snipe building.

This is...the alliance to prevent me from approaching Aria that Fuuma warned me about...!

What's with these guys? I'd be glad if Aria stayed away from me, I'd be so much more safe, but why would they put so much effort into it? What did they gain? Why was mini-Aria, Mamiya Akari, so interested? I had seen Konayuki behave the same away with regards to Shirayuki, so I took Mamiya's behaviour towards Aria as the same sort of thing. It's a dangerous thing to do though, involving yourself with the security of Aria's mind and body. Well...that's a whole new world that I couldn't possibly comprehend, so I'd no choice but to leave her to it.